Max and Fang -- life after nevermore
by faxandclace17
Summary: Turns out the "end of the world" was only a tsunami that hit a few small islands. Fang and Max and the crew all survived and they have been back in the world for about three years now. Max and Fang got married and moved away, leaving the rest of the flock with Dr. Martinez and Ella. At the beginning of our story, it's almost thanksgiving and the crew comes to visit Max's small home
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

I looked over at Fang as he hung up the phone. "Are they okay? They had fun at the Aquarium, right?"

"They're fine. Max… we've called the kids almost every day since we moved out. It's been six months. Don't you think you should, you know, start focusing on us?" I sighed. "Yeah, I know. It's just hard. I took care of them for almost eight years. It's hard to just… leave it alone, you know?"

"Yeah, I get it. I was right there with you almost all the way. I feel the same way, believe me. I just want to think about us, and starting our new life. Together."

I admit, I had been a bit paranoid and over protective since we moved away. I guess I was just still connected to those kids. They were my flock, my family. Ever since we got off of that island three years ago, I had been a bit jumpy. Turns out, the so called "end of the world" only hit a few small islands, one of which just happened to be the one we were on. Figures. However, just because the tsunami didn't hit the rest of the world didn't mean it hadn't changed. We could barely walk outside without being surrounded by either government officials or press, let alone fly. Anyway, Fang and I agreed that when we turned eighteen, we would move out of our small house in Arizona and get married, start a life together. We planned on legally adopting Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge, but my mom insisted that we needed alone time, and offered to adopt them herself. I don't trust just anyone with my flock, but my mom wasn't just anyone. She was my mom, and as far as adults go, she's the most trustworthy person I know. Besides, she was always like a second mom to the kids anyway, and I knew they'd be okay with it. Iggy decided to stay with my mom too, claiming he wasn't ready to part with the flock. Personally, I think he just wasn't ready to part with Ella, but whatever.

Fang stepped forward and put his hands on my waist, snapping me out of my revere. "Okay, from now on, we'll only call them once a week. Sound good?" He smiled that lopsided smile that I loved so much, and, instead of answering, kissed me. I smiled against his mouth, so grateful that after all we had been through; we were finally married and had some time to ourselves. But apparently, that time wasn't meant to last long, because right then we were interrupted by a knock on the door of our small, one story, two bedroom house. I pulled away from Fang, frowning. "Were you expecting someone?" He shook his head, his face covered in confusion.

Carefully, he stepped into the living room and opened the door. Suddenly, something jumped out and hit into him. I went into battle mode, but then saw the familiar blond curls as Angel's arms wrapped around Fang's neck in a big hug. "Hey Ange." He choked out, having the wind knocked out of him by the ten year old. The door opened wider as more people flooded into my home, and I recognized each of them, one by one. My family. Angel plopped onto the small couch in our living room, followed by Nudge. Iggy, apparently sensing where I was, came into the kitchen to greet me, Ella following close behind him. I was barely aware of Fang and Gazzy talking, or of my mom slowly coming in and sitting down, clearly exhausted, as Iggy hugged me, but I was overcome with happiness. My flock was here, at my house, after six months of being away from me. We were all together again, and I realized just how much I had missed them.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked to no one in particular, smiling. Nudge perked up and looked around the corner into the kitchen. "We're here for Thanksgiving! It was Iggy's idea. He didn't want you guys to have to be alone on such a great holiday."

"Plus he didn't want Fang to have to suffer through your cooking." Gazzy said under his breath. I put my hands on my hips and glared at him. "What did you just say?"

"Um, nothing…" He put his head down, but I could see him grinning. I rolled my eyes and smiled. I missed being the head of the house. Although it had been a tough job raising three kids when I was so young, it did have its perks.

After dinner, Angel went to bed and the rest of us talked in the living room. Gazzy crashed after only about ten minutes, and an hour in Iggy and Ella left. My mom had fallen asleep while Nudge was telling us a story, and I almost did a few times myself. I was sitting on the couch, Fang next to me, and Nudge was on the other side of the small room on the floor. Nudge yawned. "Alright, I think I'm gonna try to sleep now." She lay down and covered herself with a small blanket. "Night."

"Goodnight." I said quietly, not wanting to wake my mom, who was in the chair next to us. I put my head on Fang's shoulder and we sat in silence until we knew for sure she was asleep. I sighed. "What time is it?" I was whispering, knowing that the house was so small and not wanting to wake anyone. Fang looked at his watch. "Eleven." I sat up and closed my eyes. "I'm so tired."

"Well it's been a long day. C'mon. Let's go to bed." He stood up, then helped me up, holding my hand as I walked over to my mom and pulled a blanket over her. I looked at her and smiled. "I'm so happy to see them again."

"Me too."

We walked into the kitchen and down the nine foot hallway that contained the two bedrooms and a linens closet. I silently opened the first bedroom and peeked inside, checking on the kids. There were two chairs in there, one of them occupied by Iggy and Ella, the other by Gazzy. Angel was sprawled on the floor in front of Gaz, her curls spreading across her pillow. "She's still so pretty when she sleeps." I looked at Fang and nodded, remembering every night that I checked on her like this, every time thinking she was more beautiful than the night before. No matter how creepy that kid could be, I loved her to death, and I knew Fang did too. I closed the door, making sure not to wake them, and walked the short distance to my own room. Fang crossed the room to the bed and climbed in, and I went into the bathroom to change into my sweats. By the time I came back in, Fang was already asleep. I climbed into bed, putting my head on Fang's chest. My eyes drifted shut. "Goodnight Fang." I whispered, drifting off to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

"…_Fang's hand was making slow, warm circles between my wings, and that plus the hypnotic fire and the stress of the day all combined to make me tired and unable to think strait… _

_Now Fang was rubbing my neck. I was both exhausted and hyperaware, and just as he leaned in - to kiss me again? - I jumped to my feet. _

_He looked up at me._

'_I - I'm not sure about this,' I muttered. How's that for silver-tongued rapier wit, eh? Overreacting _

_impressively, I raced to the front of the cave and launched myself out into the night, unfurling my wings…"_

Suddenly, something wet connected with my face and my eyes flew wide open. "Total!" I yelled, realizing he was licking my face, disrupting me from my not-so-good dream. Fang's eyes blinked open slowly and Total drew away and jumped off of Fang. "Max! You've _got _to come to the kitchen!" I started breathing heavily; worried that something had happened to my flock. "Your mom made cookies!" I scoffed. Gosh that dog had a way of presenting himself. I looked at Fang and he shrugged. "Alright dog, we'll be out in a second. Now skedat!" I said, making Total scurry out of the room.

I jumped out of bed, closing the door and rushing to the bathroom to brush my teeth. "Bathroom's yours." I said to Fang, throwing him the toothpaste and going to the corner of the room where I kept my small dresser. I quickly yanked on jeans and a T-shirt and opened the top drawer to look for some sort of sweater. Suddenly I felt hands on my waist. "Good morning sweetheart." I smiled. "Morning, Fang." I twisted around to face him, immediately getting caught in a kiss. I made a surprised noise but didn't pull away from him, wrapping my arms around his neck. We kissed for what felt like forever until someone knocked on our door. Nudge's voice came through to us, though we kept kissing. "Hey are you guys gonna come out for cookies and milk?" I pulled away from Fang reluctantly, still holding him. "Um, yeah, we'll be out in a second." I turned back my head back to Fang, and we put our foreheads against each other. I smiled. "We should get out there."

"I know." He said, leaning forward and kissing me quickly, then releasing me.

I stepped back and we headed towards the door, holding hands. We came out and walked the short ways into the kitchen, and I took in the scene in front of me. My mom was cooking something the stove, and Gazzy, Nudge and Total sat at the table, playing cards and eating cookies. By the looks of things, Angel, Iggy, and Ella were all still asleep. I looked at the oven timer and realized it was only seven o' clock. "Wait, what are we doing up so early?"

My mom turned around to face me. "Morning you two! Max, we are going shopping today." I practically chocked on my own spit. "Shopping? Mom, since when have I agreed to go _shopping?" _

"Since I'm forcing you to. Come on, it'll be fun! Just you, me, and the girls." Now I did choke on my own spit. "Okay, you expect me to trust the boys to be alone in my house? I don't think they'd last ten minutes without something catching on fire or exploding. You don't leave Gaz and Iggy alone in a house without someone to keep them sane. Period."

"Well sweetie, Fang will be here." Both Fang and I busted up laughing. "Are you kidding me? They're not scared of Fang _at all." _She sighed. "Fine, how about I leave Ella here? I don't think she'd be real enthused with the idea of shopping anyway." I thought about it. Though they weren't afraid of Ella, Ig was in love with her, meaning he would probably do anything she says… hmm… "Deal."

As soon as Iggy and Ella woke up, we were going to leave. So, as I saw them come out into the kitchen, I was both relieved to get away for a while, and scared to leave Fang. As crazy as it sounds, In the six months Fang and I had been married, we hadn't been more than fifty feet apart from each other. Ever. Wherever he went, I followed, and the same goes to him. We loved each other too much to be separated, having had that experience more than once in the past.

"Wait," I said to my mom, my mouth full of cookie. "Where's Angel?" She looked confused and looked around the room. "Huh. That's strange. She was in here for breakfast." Fang and I exchanged a quick look of panic, and then headed towards the back door. "Angel?!" I yelled, looking at the sky while shading my eyes from the sun. With my raptor vision, I could barely make out white wings and blond curls, but they were there. I shot Fang a look that said _up and away_, and then shot my wings out and took off.

She was about 2,000 feet up, with her eyes closed and body parallel with the sun. "What the heck are you doing up here?" Her eyes shot open as she looked at me and smiled. "I just wanted to talk to the birds." Fang, who was now beside me, groaned. "Ange, there are no birds up here. Besides, you know how dangerous it is to be flying around here." She gave us an angry look and, folding her wings and angling her body down, dropped to the ground. I rolled my eyes as she walked back inside, clearly angry with us.

Looking at the ground, I suddenly saw ocean waves and dolphins, and the kids riding them and having fun. My eyes filled with tears as the memory of that day came back to me. The day we decided for the first time to officially be together. "Are you okay?" asked Fang, concern flooding his voice. I laughed and looked him in the eye. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. This just… it reminded me of that day at the beach. When we decided to be together." He smiled and flew as close to me as he could. "This is a lot like that, isn't it?" He paused for a second, then leaned forward and kissed me. "I love you." It amazed me how even this little memory made me cry. There had to be something wrong with me. "I love you too."

We stayed there for a minute, just hovering and looking at each other, until my mom came out and called up to us. Glad that she couldn't see us, I tucked in my wings and plunged downward, feeling the wind on my face as the ground rushed up to meet me. I landed roughly, having not had much practice in the past few years, and Fang was there moments later. "You ready to go?" my mom asked, smiling. I looked at Fang and bit my lip. "Yeah."


	3. Chapter 3(part one)

Chapter 3:

I sat in the car, grasping the chain of the necklace around my throat. Fang had given me the necklace when we got married, and I always wore it. I'm always nervous in cars, but it was even worse then. First of all, I was away from Fang, which had rarely happened in the past three years, and never in at least six months. Second, the windows of my mom's mini-van _didn't roll down. _Big problem. The only way I can stand cars and not flying is if the window is rolled down and my head is sticking out of it. As you can imagine, I was really freaking out. I was just about ready to break the window with a nearby rock when my phone beeped. I fished it out of my pocket, needing a distraction. It was Fang.

_Hey sweetie. Just wanted to make sure you're holding in there. - F_

I texted him back as fast as I could, needing to talk to him in order to call me down.

_As much as I can. You?_

His reply came quick, and I was happy to have a source of communication with him.

_No. I can't even think strait without you here. I should have come with you._

_ My mom never would have let you, you know that. Besides, we knew we couldn't stay connected at the hip forever. Maybe this is good for us._

_ Yeah, I know. It's just that not being with you is bringing back painful memories, you know?_

_ Yeah, same here._

I looked up as we arrived at the store, not wanting to stop texting Fang, and knowing my mom would make me put my phone away. I put my phone back in my pocket to wait for his reply, thinking I'd just sneak off in the store to use it. I climbed out of the car, Angel behind me, and took in the view. The stores were covered in posters for Black Friday sales, and the insides of the first store looked pretty empty. I guess no one really goes to the outlet mall the day before Thanksgiving.

I felt my pocket buzz, but kept walking with the rest of the group towards the store. As we walked in, I told my mom I was headed to the bathroom, and then went to the corner to text Fang. I stopped at the coats, pulling out my phone. I knew my mom was going to get so mad at me. I probably wouldn't even say a word to any of them this whole trip. _Oh well,_ I thought, _as long as I have Fang I'm alright. _


End file.
